One of the operators comes over with a Desole and hands us a brochure that indicates that the next ferry will depart in two hours. ARGH! So. We pull up Google maps and start scouting for alternate bridges, ferries, places to ford the river, and fairy godmothers. It soon becomes clear that the first tasting is completely lost. There is absolutely no way for us to make that session, but we might, and I mean just might, be able to make the second if we drive alllllllll the way back down to Bordeaux, cross the two bridges there and head back up the left bank. Somewhat dejected, but resolute (and bolstered by a croissant and coffee each) we head into the heart of rush hour. We start picking our way through Haut-Medoc and Margaux (which seems to be the model St. Helena planners used to build downtown. I swear I thought I was in Cali for a minute.)
About half way up the bank, we get stuck behind a whole line of vehicles stuck behind...A tractor carting two bales of hay. No lie, we followed that tractor, doing tractor speeds, for 20 kilometers. Meanwhile, we're just watching time tick away for our next appointment.
Tractor finally turns off, and we wend our way through several famous wine towns. We Pauillac where I see a beautiful tower on our right. When I point it out, Kris remarks 'Yup, that's the La Tour tower' in a nonchalant tone. Our destination, Chateau Pichon Baron was just across the street a little way up.
With minutes to spare, we find our way to the ultra-modern visitors center tucked into the hillside in front of the centuries old castle built by the 4th (or was it the 5th?) Baron Pichon's sons. Tour tour guide was lovely - we were her first English tour. The wine here is fantastic. We walked away with two bottles that Kris joked (sort of) for our retirement. Hopefully it's ready a bit sooner than that...
With one visit saved, we picked our way south and grabbed lunch at Le Lion D'Or in Arcins. Kris had a sort of duck/mallard (we think) and I had pigeon. Both were excellent, although I may have further sullied the American reputation in France by picking up the pigeon bones and gnawing the meat off before delicately depositing the denuded remains on the plate. *shrugs*
We then headed to Chateau Lascombes. The tour here was excellent! And although the wine suffered a bit by comparison to Pichon Baron, we picked up two bottles here as well.
Running late again (Our Lascombes tour started late because the other couple showed up ten minutes late. I'm assuming it was karma from our missing our first appointment that morning. Although to be fair, Kris did both call and email the winery to let them know what had happened and they were beyond gracious) we pulled into Chateau Desmirail. Turns out we shouldn't have worried...Somehow our booking was lost, so they 'fit us in'. This was the most industrial and frankly least interesting of the places we went today. Some of it was on us, since we (I) felt like they were 'doing us a favor' by squeezing us in, I tried to let our guide know that she could skip over the basics. I think she took that a bit as us being disinterested (Americans just looking for the booze...) and threw her off of her patter a bit. While she was very nice, it just never really came together. And the wine wasn't really much to write home about either.
A quick side note - I'm not entirely convinced that out side of the grand crus, reservations are strictly required. It might just be because we're here so late in the season, but we've had several 'lost' reservations already and in the end, it didn't really seem to matter. I can pretty much guarantee that you can't just walk into Petrus or Chateau Margaux, but you may be okay just wandering in off the streets at most places. We may test this out later, but something to consider if you find yourself here w/o bookings.
We picked our way back to Saint Emilion (A wreck on the big bridge in Bordeaux slowed us down considerably) and opted to stop at a Carrefour for some bottled water, shampoo (I hate hotel shampoo) and Ariel for later in the week when we do laundry. The Carrefour in Libourne puts every WalMart in Cincinnati to shame. It's GI-normous.
After finding the rental car in the over-crowded parking lot, we got back on the road again. We managed to take a wrong turn at a round-about and ended up on some back streets in Libourne. And then some WAY back streets in the farms of Saint Emilion. So back streets that we ended up at the LOCKED back gate of our hotel on what was basically a one lane farm road. Cut to me throwing a u-turn in a wide spot (via an 87 point turn) then deciding that the locked gate really was the back drive of the hotel, needing to back-up along a quarter mile of said 1 lane farm road with ditches on either side. Yikes! I think tomorrow will be a quiet day in and around the hotel 'cause after more than 5 hours in the car and a lot of HARD driving today, I'm ready to be done for a bit...
Oh! And dinner at the hotel restaurant was surprisingly excellent! The somm pulled a number of fantastic bottles to pour by the glass to compliment both the food and our taste. I'm usually a bit wary of hotel restaurants, but would eat here again if I were in the area.
30 October
Can confirm, spent a quiet day around hotel and Pomerol today. We had lunch at La Terasse Rouge, which was excellent. Saw a Ferrari shooting break, which was ridiculous (a 4 seater Ferrari? Really? With a hatch back? Blech,) and tried to visit the Pomerol Maison du Vin, which was closed, just for today apparently. So, we headed back to the hotel, hit the spa, and drank some wine from yesterday. Tonight we head back into Saint Emilion for dinner at Lard Et Buchon. Tomorrow we head to Sauternes, where hopefully we have smooth sailing!
+5 points for use of the word “denuded”. Sounds like you’re having fun !
ReplyDeleteThanks! Always love an opportunity to work in an SAT word. We're having a great time so far!
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